My

Journey
With
Language

Los Angeles Pacific University

The memories that I have about speaking and our being spoken too is starting at the age of two and

three I remember me and my mom singing the Alphabet. When it got to the letter’s” C” and ” T” I would

emphasize the sounds. I remember calling the first dog I had by his name Rex. I would call his name three

times when I wanted him to come to me. I would say the word Pan-Na -Nies, which was for the word

panties. I remember calling my little brother’s nickname which is “BOO” and my teenage next door

neighbor who’s house I would visit everyday her name was Donna.

When describing how my family prioritzed language when it came speaking, books and literacy.

It was very important in our home. My dad read the newspaper everyday and I remember him always

writing as he read, I remember sitting down at the table with him with a pen and paper, not sure what I

was writing. I learned when I was 10 that my Dad had a hard time with reading and writing. That was the

reason why he always read because he was writing down the words that he didn’t know and he still does

this today. My mom would read books to me, my favorite was Cinderella because I loved the

her dress and the mouse when she was going to the Ball. She read it so much that I would finish the

sentence by memory and I remember the Dr. Suess Alphabet Book thats how I learned my sounds and

letter recognition. By the time, I was 4 and 5, I knew how to spell my name. I remember my mom asking

me what are the letters in my full name and I would spell my first, middle and last name which consist of

seven letters in each name.

At 6 and 9, I was speaking and spelling words in the English Language and I had learned a new language

as well, which was Arabic because I attended Muslim School for a few years as well as public school.

Tthe language was very difficult the alphabet alone was a struggle trying to pronounce and the sounds of

the letters was so confusing to me. I remember practicing for at school and at home for 2 to 3 hours a day.

By 10, I was introduced to another language which was Spanish. Learning this language was a lot easier.

I remembered the alphabet like I had heard the language before I gravitated to the language, even though

the first words I learned in Spanish were the “Bad Words”. I was able to grasp the sounds, pronunciations
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of the alphabet along with spelling the words and that helped me get better at understanding and speaking

the language.

My memories connect with my current experiences / feelings that I have about language and literacy

by how learning those different languages at such a young age showed me that learning these languages

opens doors to how I can communicate with other’s from the same background as me and other cultures

as well. That’s when it became important that I am going to teach those around me how to read and enjoy

it. It connects because I can remember the struggles that I had trying to learn my first language which is

English, then learning a language that was unfamiliar to me since it wasn’t spoken in my home.

Also, it connects with my current experiences and feelings because I began tutoring at a very young age,

I taught my brother how to read and write before he went to kindergarten. I taught all of my nieces,

nephews, and friends children how to read all the way through college for some and now I teach their

children how to read and write, today.

My career path is reflected in and inspired by my experiences by how, over 23 years ago I was

giving the opportunity to actually become an assistant for my local school district. I began assisting

student who were in general and special education classrooms. I was able to continue to do what I have

been doing already. A plus was I will be learning new skills and techniques on teaching all subjects, but

this time, I would be teaching and assisting students with learning disabilities and students who were

learning English as a second language. I was able to understand the difficulties that some students may

have with learning new vocabulary, from the sounds, spelling, comprehending and understanding what is

being taught. I was one of those students when I was learning Arabic and Spanish. The many years that I

taught and assisted those students gave me the courage and joy to want to become a teacher as well as a

counselor.
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When describing the impact on early language exposure is to us humans and students by how when

starting early in learning a second language it will most likely lead to proficiency. According to

(Rubio, 2022), If we learn at a young age by the time we reach schoo age. We will be using complex

grammar and will demonstrate a wide vocabulary. Even though,older children and adults may make faster

progress initially in L2 learning and younger children always have an advantage in terms of ultimate

attainment when learning a non-native language.

What I can conclude from my experiences and the experiences of others is that it may be easier as a child

to learn languages than it is an adult. Their will still be struggles in phonemic awareness and combining

words to form phrases and sentences. Just like me, with practice and determination will and has allowed

us to learn and communicate or feelings as well as build relationships with people of all walks of life.

Early language affects a person’s feelings about language/ literacy later in life by how they will have the

ability to express themselves. It gives them the opportunity to want to learn as many different languages

that they may want to learn. It affects their feelings by how it helps supports their thinking ability. Helping

them to develop, strengthen, and maintain relationships. As well as, giving them a voice to express

themselves about the world that they live in (Cohen, 2010).

When connecting the theories relating to language acquisition and literacy development to help

me understand my own experiences and the experiences of other’s with language. I found that with the

Constructive Theory, I understand how we experience the world differently and when reflecting on our

own experiences we build our own representations through assimilation and incorporate the new

information to revise and redevelop our existing knowledge. The Sociocultural theory helped me

understand that reading and writing in whether in the first or second language. It involves us learning

through communication and support within our families and communities that will help us to learn the

languages, through our cultures, language and the zone of proximal development ( Vygotsky, 1978).

Lastly, the theories help me in understanding my experiences and the experiences of other’s because it is

a process that we must go through in order to develop and build our skills in reading and writing, rather

it is in our first language or we are learning a second language for the first time.
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References

The impact of language development on the psychosocial and emotional ...

(n.d.-b).https://www.child-encyclopedia.com/pdf/expert/language-development-and-literacy/according-experts/impact-la

nguage-development-psychosocial-and

Office of Curriculum, Assessment and teaching transformation. Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching

Transformation - University at Buffalo. (2023, July 12). https://www.buffalo.edu/catt.html

Rubio. (2022). The impact of early language learning. ACTFL.

https://www.actfl.org/research/research-briefs/the-impact-of-early-language-learning

A sociocultural approach to literacy and its significance for call. (n.d.-a).

http://education.uci.edu/uploads/7/2/7/6/72769947/a_sociocultural_approach